Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Character Evolution and Christmas Tree Program

In her post, she describes how her her characters evolve as she writes. Sometimes, it is in the interest of the story, but other times it's because she gets to know the characters better.

I've had the same thing happen--to the point where I end up changing the entire story because the character is leading me.And, sometimes, my protag evolves into an entire new character.

Does this happen to you?

One of the things I enjoy doing before and during writing a story, is to continually develop my characters. I fill out a character questionnaire or two and watch the world for interesting quirks, hobbies, habits, obsessions, mannerisms, etc. to apply to my characters to help develop them. When I'm in the middle of writing story, even when I'm not actually writing, my mind is always acutely aware of my story and its characters. So, when I notice something in a person in real life or on television, for example, I will directly realize that the trait I see belongs to my character. Sometimes these traits seem to come out of the blue.

I believe a well-developed character (both in the story and behind the scenes) will lead herself in a story. The reader should never be surprised (I am not referring to plot surprises here) in how the protag responds to or avoids things (and, yes, I know there are many exceptions).

Here are some interesting articles on character evolution and how to make your character interesting without becoming a two-dimensional cliched stereotype:

9 comments:

I like your post. It contains very interesting and helpful links. I always wanted to be the author. Never got a chance. I wanna ask one question before writing a book, how start. It should be about ma life or as a third person.?? Can you answer me??

Thx for stopping by AravisGirl and Russell!Learning to Read: Just go with your gut. I suggest trying one point of view and then the other. I'm sure you will feel more comfortable with one over the other. It's a huge topic, choosing POV - one worth blogging about! Stay tuned...